We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Thursday, October 13, 2016

Eric Draitser interviews Mark Crispin Miller [post of the month]

Click here to access this lengthy discussion with Professor Miller from CounterPunch Radio.

Prof. Miller is professor of media studies at New York University and a noted media critic who offers some very important insights about the increasing convergence of sheer right-wing propaganda in mainstream media in place of any pretense of journalism that I have often referred to in my blog. I don't normally post such lengthy podcasts, but this discussion is extremely important for any citizen who wants to be any kind of perceptive critical observer and thinker about what is going on in our increasingly dangerous world and in our own country.
This week Eric sits down with author and academic Mark Crispin Miller to discuss the controlled corporate media and its grip on discourse in the United States, conspiracy theories versus conspiracy facts, US elections as both farce and illusion, and much more. Eric and Mark begin with a discussion of the history of media propaganda, and how the corporate media we know and loathe came to be the monolithic servant of power it is today. The conversation then turns to the issue of conspiracy theories and the importance of nuanced analysis that is skeptical of power but also avoids the pitfalls, and outright fascism, of the online conspiracy world. The final part of the program shifts into vote fraud and the controlled and manipulated election system in the US which, Eric and Mark both argue, simply cannot be trusted. So much ground is covered in this wide-ranging discussion on CounterPunch Radio.